This invention relates to a novel combustible and explosive compositions useful as substitutes for previous gunpowder-based compositions as well as other combustible formulations which were useful for propellent, explosive and other pyrotechnic applications.
The prior use of gunpowder formulations for various pyrotechnic applications has, of course, been wide-spread. Likewise, the use of a wide variety of explosives is well known. Nitrate-containing gunpowder formulations and explosive compositions have been extensively researched. Many different compositions incorporating varying amounts of nitrate mixtures have been formulated and some utilized for particular ammunition, propellent and explosive applications. Even with the extensive work done over the years in the area of ammunition, explosives and propellents, few compositions have successfully achieved utility for several applications and none has successfully replaced the basic ingredients of well known gunpowder formulations and nitrated explosive compositions for general ammunition use as well as propellent and explosive applications.
Many combustible compositions which have utility as gunpowders, or explosives, or propellents or other pyrotechnic uses, employ nitrates, including organic and inorganic nitrates and ammonium nitrate, as the oxidizer portion of the composition mixture singly or sometimes in combination with other oxidizers, either as a mixture or in some chemical combination in the composition. In particular ammonium and alkali metal nitrates are employed as preferred oxidizers in many pyrotechnic formulations due to their cost and their widespread availability. Great care has to be exercised, however, in compounding formulations containing nitrates to avoid contact with easily oxidizable materials, such as many organic materials, since the flamability and potential explosive characteristic of the resultant materials has to be carefully evaluated for safety reasons. It has always been desirable to obtain pyrotechnic compositions that are safe handling and yet tend to burn predictably and completely and therefore efficiently with little ash or residue. This objective has been difficult to obtain in combination with safe handling due to powerful and often unpredictable oxidizer activity.